Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (
More info?)
MartyLK@sega.net wrote:
> PCStats has a somewhat favorable review of the 500 watt'er.
>
> Building a powerful system and want this brand PSU but need to know if
> they are reliable.
The PCStats review may have given some wrong information:
-----------------------------------------------------
"The volt-amp (VA) value is how much real power is
being consumed by the power supply being tested to
provide the wattage (W) value. The higher the VA
value is, the more electricity is being used by the
power supply. Because no electrical device is 100%
efficient, there will always be some loss when
converting AC to DC. The closer the volt-amps and
wattage figures are to each other, the more efficient
a power supply is. This is called the Power Factor:
wattage / volt-amps = PF."
------------------------------------------------------
But VA isn't a measure of real power but of apparent power, or the
excess above the real power, and that excess is not consumed by the PSU
but is bounced back into the AC power source. In the U.S., household
customers aren't billed for this excess, so it doesn't matter except
when it comes to sizing a standby power supply, such as an UPS, where
its VA output capacity must exceed the computers VA draw, and for two
systems that each consume the same number of watts, the one with the
higher power factor will allow a lower capacity standby power supply to
be used.
PCStats didn't test seem to test the PSU to its full rated 500W but
only to 193W, and I'm not sure if that's 193W coming out of the PSU or
193W going into it.
IOW I don't think that much can be concluded about the Ultra
X-Connect's performance from this review.
Here are some better reviews of this product (better = competent, not
necessarily favorable):
www.silentpcreview.com/article193-page1.html
www.slcentral.com/ultra-x-connect-500w-titanium-psu
www.3dvelocity.com/reviews/ultraxconnect/ultrax.htm
More than one company manufactures the Ultra-X series. Some are by
Wintech (the one 3DVelocity tested was, and all the Ultra X-finity) and
others are by Young Year.
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